The Project Management
Process Groups: A Case Study
Managing IS Projects
Learning Objectives
• Describe the five project management process groups, the typical level of
activity for each, and the interactions among them
• Understand how the project management process groups relate to the project
management knowledge areas
• Discuss how organizations develop information technology (IT) project
management methodologies to meet their needs
Learning Objectives
• Review a case study of an organization applying the
project management process groups to manage an IT
project, describe outputs of each process group, and
understand the contribution that effective initiating,
planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and
closing make to project success
• Review the same case study of a project managed with
an agile focus to illustrate the key differences in
approaches
• Describe several templates for creating documents for
each process group
Project Management Process Groups
• A process is a series of actions directed toward a particular result
• Project management can be viewed as a number of interlinked processes
• The project management process groups include
initiating processes
planning processes
executing processes
monitoring and controlling processes
closing processes
Percentage of Time Spent on Each Process
Group
860 project
managers in
various
industries
Source: Andy Crowe
Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2 percent Know That Everyone Else Does Not
Project Management Process Groups and
Knowledge Area Mapping*
Source: Project Management Institute A Guide to the Project Management Body
of Knowledge (PMBOK ® Guide) – Sixth Edition
Project Management Process Groups and
Knowledge Area Mapping (continued)
Developing an IT Project Management
Methodology
• Just as projects are unique, so are approaches to project management
• Many organizations develop their own project management methodologies,
especially for IT projects
• A methodology describes how things should be done; a standard describes
what should be done
• PRINCE2, Agile, RUP, and Six Sigma provide different project management
methodologies
Global Issues
PMI's Pulse of the Profession 2024 report.
• The IT industry is one of the leading sectors
in adopting agile and hybrid
methodologies:55% of IT respondents report
using a hybrid approach always or often in
their projects, reflecting the flexibility needed to
manage complex IT projects.
• 53% report using agile frequently, highlighting
the importance of rapid, iterative development
cycles in technology projects.
• In contrast, only 45% of IT respondents use
predictive approaches, indicating a clear
preference for more adaptive methodologies in
this industry
Global Issues
According to the 17th State of Agile Report (2023), Agile methodologies continue to
be widely adopted,
• With over 70% of 788 responded using Agile in their software development life
cycles (SDLC).
• Additionally, 42% reported using a hybrid model that includes Agile, DevOps, or
other frameworks.
• Bigger teams are also more likely to still use Waterfall (31% of large and 38% of
medium-sized).
• Agile adoption remains strong across industries, with Scrum being the most
popular framework, used by 63% of Agile teams.
• The top benefits from using Agile was stated to be improved collaboration and
better alignment to the business
JWD Case Study: Predictive
OPENING CASE
• Erica Bell, in charge of the Project Management Office (PMO) for her consulting firm,
JWD Consulting
• JWD focuses on finding and managing high-payoff projects and developing strong
metrics to measure project performance and benefits to the organization after the
project is implemented
• Joe Fleming, CEO, wanted his company to continue to grow and become a world-
class consulting organization
• Wants an example process for clients: develop several intranet site applications that
would allow them to share their project management knowledge
• JWD should make some of the information available to the firm's clients, e.g. project
management templates, tools, articles, links to other sites, and an Ask the Expert
feature
• Because JWD Consulting emphasizes the importance of high-payoff projects, Joe also
wanted to see a business case for this project before proceeding.
Project Pre-initiation
• It is good practice to lay the groundwork for a project before it
officially starts
• Senior managers often perform several pre-initiation tasks, including
the following:
Determine the scope, time, and cost constraints for the project
Identify the project sponsor
Select the project manager
Develop a business case for a project
Meet with the project manager to review the process and
expectations for managing the project
Determine if the project should be divided into two or more smaller
projects
Project Initiation
• Initiating a project includes recognizing and starting a new project or project
phase
• The main goal is to formally select and start off projects
• Table 3-3 project initiation knowledge areas, processes, and outputs
Stakeholder Register
Activity:
• In groups think about what you need to know about each stakeholder
Stakeholder Power Interest Matrix
Stakeholder Management Strategy
Contents are often sensitive, so do not publish this document .
Project Charters and Kick-off Meetings
• See Table 3-6 for an example of a charter (p.103)
• Charters are normally short and include key project information and
stakeholder signatures
• It’s good practice to hold a kick-off meeting at the beginning of a project so
that stakeholders can meet each other, review the goals of the project, and
discuss future plans
Kick-off Meeting Agenda
Project Planning
• The main purpose of project planning is to guide execution
• Every knowledge area includes planning information (see Table 3-7 on pages
106-108)
• Key outputs included in the JWD project include:
A team contract
A project scope statement
A work breakdown structure (WBS)
A project schedule, in the form of a Gantt chart with all dependencies and
resources entered
A list of prioritized risks (part of a risk register)
• See sample documents starting on p. 110
Team Planning Example
1. List one item that is most unclear to you about the scope of this project.
2. What other questions do you have, or issues do you foresee about the scope of the project?
3. List what you believe to be the main deliverables for this project.
4. Which deliverables do you think you will help create or review?
Work Breakdown Structure
JWD Consulting Intranet Site Project Baseline
Gantt Chart
List of Prioritized Risks
Project Execution
• Usually takes the most time and resources to perform project execution
• Project managers must use their leadership skills to handle the many
challenges that occur during project execution
• Table 3-11 on p. 118 lists the executing processes and outputs. Many project
sponsors and customers focus on deliverables related to providing the
products, services, or results desired from the project
• A milestone report (example on pp. 120-121) can help focus on completing
major milestones
Part of Milestone Report (partial)
Project Monitoring and Controlling
• Involves measuring progress toward project objectives, monitoring deviation
from the plan, and taking correction actions
• Affects all other process groups and occurs during all phases of the project
life cycle
• Outputs include performance reports, change requests, and updates to
various plans
• See Table 3-13
Project Closing
• Involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final products
and services
• Even if projects are not completed, they should be closed out to learn from
the past
• Outputs include project files and lessons-learned reports, part of
organizational process assets
• Most projects also include a final report and presentation to the
sponsor/senior management
JWD Case Study: Agile (Scrum)
Scrum Roles
• Product owner: The person responsible for the business
value of the project and for deciding what work to do and
in what order, as documented in the product backlog.
• ScrumMaster: The person who ensures that the team is
productive, facilitates the daily Scrum, enables close
cooperation across all roles and functions, and removes
barriers that prevent the team from being effective.
• Scrum team or development team: A cross-functional
team of five to nine people who organize themselves and
the work to produce the desired results for each sprint,
which normally lasts 2-4 weeks.
Scrum Artifacts
• An artifact is a useful object
created by people
• Scrum artifacts include:
Product backlog: A list of
features prioritized by business
value
Sprint backlog: The highest-
priority items from the product
backlog to be completed within
a sprint
Burndown chart: Shows the
cumulative work remaining in a
sprint on a day-by-day basis
Scrum Ceremonies
• Sprint planning session: A meeting with the team to select a set
of work from the product backlog to deliver during a sprint.
• Daily Scrum: A short meeting for the development team to share
progress and challenges, plan work for the day and discuss
stumbling blocks (to be resolved by the SM):
Issues: Non-urgent
Blockers: urgent
• Sprint reviews: A meeting in which the team demonstrates to the
product owner what it has completed during the sprint.
• Sprint retrospectives: A meeting in which the team looks for
ways to improve the product and the process based on a review
of the actual performance of the development team.
Scrum Framework and the Process Groups
Unique Scrum Activities by Process Group
Planning
• Not different from PMBOK® Guide
Still create a scope statement and can use a Gantt chart for the entire
project schedule
other planning similar (risk, etc.)
• Different:
Descriptions of work are identified in the product and sprint backlogs
more detailed work documented in technical stories
estimate a velocity or capacity for each sprint
release roadmap often used for schedule
JWD Scrum set-up & planning
• Joe Fleming – Product Owner
• Erica Bell – Scrum Master
• Others – team members
• Joe and Erica would collect information from users in surveys, asking for
specific info, such as sample templates, tools, etc.
• Later several user interfaces to be released to users for feedback
Intranet Site Project Baseline Gantt Chart
Using Scrum Approach
3 software
releases vs. 1
Product and Sprint Backlogs
Activity: User story
• Create a user story for the UWL website
About three sentences long
Short description by customers (you!) what they need a system to do for
them
Small enough to be testable
Theme, Epic, User stories
• Theme: The largest grouping of work,
overarching several epics.
• Epic: A bigger user story that is too
large to complete in a single sprint,
broken down into smaller stories.
• User Stories: Specific functionalities
that bring value to the end-user.
• Tasks: The smallest, technical actions
required to complete each user story.
Improve the overall user experience of our mobile app (Theme)
Redesign the app’s navigation system to make it more intuitive (epic)
As a user, I want to navigate between different sections of the app with fewer taps, so that I can quickly access the features I use the most.
([Link])
Design a new sidebar menu with links to all major sections.
Implement the sidebar menu in the app's codebase. Tasks
Test the new navigation flow across all supported devices.
Agile User story Mapping
Executing
• Not different from PMBOK® Guide
Still produce products, lead people, etc.
• Different:
Produce several releases of software - users of the new software might be
confused by getting several iterations of the product instead of just one
Communications different because the project team meets every morning,
physically or virtually
Monitoring and Controlling
• Not different from PMBOK® Guide
Still check actual work vs. planned work
• Different
Names of key reviews are the daily Scrum and the sprint review
A sprint board is used instead of a tracking Gantt chart or other tools
Use a burndown chart vs. earned value chart
Sprint Board
Burndown Chart
Closing
• Not different from PMBOK® Guide
Focus is still on acceptance of deliverables and reflection
• Different:
The retrospective is similar to a lessons-learned report, but it focuses on a
shorter period of time. It is intended to answer two fundamental questions:
What went well during the last sprint that we should continue doing?
What could we do differently to improve the product or process?
Templates
• Table 3-20 on pp. 139-142 lists the templates available on the companion
Web site and the author’s site ([Link])
Chapter Summary
• The five project management process groups are initiating,
planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing
• You can map the main activities of each process group to the
nine knowledge areas
• Some organizations develop their own information technology
project management methodologies
• The JWD Consulting case study provides an example of using
the process groups and shows several important project
documents
• The second version of the same case study illustrates
differences using agile (Scrum). The biggest difference is
providing three releases of useable software versus just one
Seminar
Individual activity
Use the stakeholder power interest/analysis matrix and create your case study
Stakeholder analysis.
• We will check this in the seminar session
• Add the outcome to your assignment – Task 1
OPENING CASE
Erica Bell is in charge of the Project Management Office (PMO) for her consulting firm,
JWD Consulting, which has grown to include more than 200 full-time consultants and
even more part-time consultants. JWD Consulting provides a variety of consulting
services to assist organizations in selecting and managing IT projects. The firm focuses
on finding and managing high-payoff projects and developing strong metrics to measure
project performance and benefits to the organization after the project is implemented.
The firm’s emphasis on metrics and working collaboratively with its customers gives it
an edge over many competitors.
Joe Fleming, the CEO, wanted his company to continue to grow and become a world-
class consulting organization. Because the core of the business is helping other
organizations with project management, he felt it was crucial for JWD Consulting to
have an exemplary process for managing its own projects. He asked Erica to work with
her team and other consultants in the firm to develop several intranet site applications
that would allow them to share their project management knowledge. He also thought
that the firm should make some of the information available to the firm’s clients. For
example, the firm could provide project management templates, tools, articles, links
to other sites, and an Ask the Expert feature to help build relationships with current
and future clients. Because JWD Consulting emphasizes the importance of high-payoff
projects, Joe also wanted to see a business case for this project before proceeding.